Two deaths in July sparked renewed scrutiny of federal immigration crackdowns, as protesters held marches, vigils and memorials in cities across the country.

Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was driving to a construction job with his brother and two others on July 7 in Houston when ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in unmarked vehicles pursued his car. They pulled him over and fatally shot him through a passenger window.

Just six days later, on July 13, an ICE agent fatally shot Colombian immigrant Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 25, in Biddeford, Maine, while attempting to stop his vehicle.

Neither man was an intended target of the immigration operations. Protesters connected the shootings to the January deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens who were fatally shot during a federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

Mr. Araujo, who lived and worked in the U.S. for 35 years, was a husband and the father of three children who are U.S. citizens. His sons have been outspoken in the weeks following his death.

During a congressional forum on July 24, his son Salgado Araujo Jr. asked listeners to put themselves in his and his brother’s shoes.

“I want you in your mind to think of a loved one—your brother, your father, your cousin, a beloved coworker. Picture their face and silently say their first and last name. Picture that loved one’s face pinned to the ground in pain and yelling out in desperate need of help.

Picture the anger and helplessness of watching that person bleed out through a video on your phone,” he said. “What would you do after? How would you cope with the feeling of losing your protector, your role model, your mother’s loving partner, your grandmother’s little boy?”

His other son, Ronaldo Salgado, delivered a statement to the Houston City Council on July 28 demanding a full, independent and transparent investigation and justice for his father.

In a wave of protests in cities across the country, including a nationwide day of action on July 25, activists and organizers demanded independent investigations, release of video evidence, identification of the officers involved, greater disclosure of disciplinary records, restrictions on immigration-based vehicle stops and an end to local police cooperation with ICE. 

In Portland, Maine, a road sign was hacked to display the message, “No More ICE Killings.” Three “ICE Out of Maine” laws went into effect on July 29.

The two deaths resemble a pattern that has become all too familiar: agents, sometimes in unmarked cars, approach or box in a vehicle; the driver attempts to move or escape, and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) claims the vehicle posed a deadly threat.

In some previous cases, video or witness accounts have contradicted the government’s initial description. In the Houston and Maine cases, federal authorities have not publicly released evidence indicating that either driver posed an imminent threat.

Advocates also condemned the death of Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, 28, a Mexican man who visited the U.S. on a valid tourist visa. He was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer while running from federal immigration officers in Florida on July 14. He leaves behind a wife and two young children.

In a July 14 statement, Mexico’s government announced plans to take legal action in response to the deaths of Mexican nationals in ICE custody or immigration-enforcement operations.

The statement said the Mexican Embassy would submit complaints to the U.S. Justice Department and relevant state prosecutors and that the government had begun sending what it called cease-and-desist letters to detention facilities where Mexican nationals had died.

After the two July shootings, administration officials reportedly ordered ICE to suspend most vehicle stops. President Donald Trump then publicly reversed course and said the stops must continue. 

The two shootings came amid rapid ICE expansion. In June, ICE arrested more than 43,000 people, the highest monthly total of President Trump’s second term, according to ICE data analyzed by The Guardian. The detained population reached more than 65,700 by July 11. 

Congress provided approximately $70 billion in additional funding for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including money for enforcement, detention, staffing and related operations.

News reports, lawmakers and former officials have raised concerns that ICE’s rapid hiring campaign comes at the expense of sufficient background checks and training. 

Mr. Guerrero was a husband and the father of a young daughter. The Maine Attorney General’s Office is conducting a state investigation. The Colombian Embassy is also monitoring the case.